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SummaryThe idea of a circular economy (CE) has become prominent in both European and Chinese policy making. Chinese and European perspectives on a CE share a common conceptual basis and exhibit many similar concerns in seeking to enhance... more
SummaryThe idea of a circular economy (CE) has become prominent in both European and Chinese policy making. Chinese and European perspectives on a CE share a common conceptual basis and exhibit many similar concerns in seeking to enhance resource efficiency. Yet they also differ, and this article explores differences in the focus of CE policy in China and Europe. We present evidence on the differing understandings of the CE concept in Chinese and European policy discourse, drawing on qualitative and quantitative analysis of policy documents, media articles, and academic publications. We show that the Chinese perspective on the CE is broad, incorporating pollution and other issues alongside waste and resource concerns, and it is framed as a response to the environmental challenges created by rapid growth and industrialization. In contrast, Europe's conception of the CE has a narrower environmental scope, focusing more narrowly on waste and resources and opportunities for business...
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Europe’s transition to an energy system compatible with limiting global heating to 1.5°C will require radical changes in energy systems. While this will create substantial new growth industries in clean technologies, some currently... more
Europe’s transition to an energy system compatible with limiting global heating to 1.5°C will require radical changes in energy systems. While this will create substantial new growth industries in clean technologies, some currently important economic activities will decline. The impacts of that transition will not be the same for all regions. We map the economic vulnerability of European regions to ambitious decarbonisation scenarios. To do so, we develop a composite vulnerability indicator that combines each region’s share of employment in a set of high carbon industries with other dimensions of vulnerability and resilience. We then explore how regional patterns of vulnerability are influenced by the technology pathway to 2050, using four scenarios modelled using the European PRIMES model. We show that economic vulnerability to the low-carbon transition is regionally concentrated, with some regions combining high employment shares in industries expected to decline with weak adaptiv...
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future energy systems. It is the hub of UK energy research and the gateway between the UK and the international energy research communities. Our interdisciplinary, whole systems research informs UK policy development and research... more
future energy systems. It is the hub of UK energy research and the gateway between the UK and the international energy research communities. Our interdisciplinary, whole systems research informs UK policy development and research strategy. www.ukerc.ac.uk The Meeting Place- hosting events for the whole of the UK energy research community-www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/TheMeetingPlace National Energy Research Network- a weekly newsletter containing news, jobs, event, opportunities and developments across the energy field- www.ukerc.ac.uk/support/NERN Research Atlas- the definitive information resource for current and past UK energy research and development activity-
Many global decarbonisation scenarios suggest that bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is an important option for CO2 emissions mitigation. Bioenergy has been well modelled in the TIAM-UCL model, with previous work having... more
Many global decarbonisation scenarios suggest that bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is an important option for CO2 emissions mitigation. Bioenergy has been well modelled in the TIAM-UCL model, with previous work having identified the significant impact of BECCS on the projected costs of achieving a 2°C target (McGlade et al. 2015). This chapter builds on this work, using TIAM-UCL to investigate the extent to which bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is critical for meeting global CO2 reduction targets under different long-term scenarios out to 2100. The chapter also assesses the potential impacts of BECCS on mitigation costs under various scenarios at a global scale. Though previous work has suggested that BECCs can play a crucial role in meeting the global climate change mitigation target, uncertainties remain in two main areas: one is the availability of biomass, which is affected by many factors including availability of land for biomass production;...
Energy system models are powerful tools for examining the dynamics of a transition to a sustainable energy system. Here, we report the first application of a two-region version of the UK MARKAL energy system model that explicitly... more
Energy system models are powerful tools for examining the dynamics of a transition to a sustainable energy system. Here, we report the first application of a two-region version of the UK MARKAL energy system model that explicitly represents Scotland and the rest of the UK as distinct regions. We use this model to examine the implications of Scotland’s carbon and renewable energy targets, in the context of the targets legislated for the UK as a whole.
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Integrated assessment models (IAMs) have emerged as key tools for building and assessing long term climate mitigation scenarios. Due to their central role in the recent IPCC assessments, and international climate policy analyses more... more
Integrated assessment models (IAMs) have emerged as key tools for building and assessing long term climate mitigation scenarios. Due to their central role in the recent IPCC assessments, and international climate policy analyses more generally, and the high uncertainties related to future projections, IAMs have been critically assessed by scholars from different fields receiving various critiques ranging from adequacy of their methods to how their results are used and communicated. Although IAMs are conceptually diverse and evolved in very different directions, they tend to be criticised under the umbrella of ‘IAMs’. Here we first briefly summarise the IAM landscape and how models differ from each other. We then proceed to discuss six prominent critiques emerging from the recent literature, reflect and respond to them in the light of IAM diversity and ongoing work and suggest ways forward. The six critiques relate to (a) representation of heterogeneous actors in the models, (b) mode...
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The scale of the global transport system has expanded immensely with the growth of the world economy. This chapter examines the challenges faced in mitigating the unsustainable pathway of passenger transport demand and opportunities for... more
The scale of the global transport system has expanded immensely with the growth of the world economy. This chapter examines the challenges faced in mitigating the unsustainable pathway of passenger transport demand and opportunities for bringing about positive change. It begins by reviewing the scale of historic and projected trends in passenger transport travel and energy demand. Subsequent sections examine the role of travel demand, behaviour, and modal choice, particularly the impact of growing car ownership, and the outlook for vehicle drivetrains, fuels, and the on-road efficiency of the car fleet. The chapter concludes by discussing the societal and policy drivers for sustainable transport in terms of the negative externalities, market failures, interdependencies, and co-benefits of different policies and choices, incorporating air quality, safety, economic growth, and access.
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There is a large literature exploring possible hydrogen futures, using various modelling andscenario approaches. This paper compares the rates of transition depicted in that literature with a set of historical analogies. These analogies... more
There is a large literature exploring possible hydrogen futures, using various modelling andscenario approaches. This paper compares the rates of transition depicted in that literature with a set of historical analogies. These analogies are cases in which alternative-fuelled vehicles have penetrated vehicle markets. The paper suggests that the literature has tended to be optimistic about the possible rate at which hydrogen vehicles might replace oil-based transportation. The paper compares 11 historical adoptions of alternative fuel vehicles with 24 scenarios from 20 studies that depict possible hydrogen futures. All but one of the hydrogen scenarios show vehicle adoption faster than has occurred for hybrid electric vehicles in Japan, the most successful market for hybrids. Several scenarios depict hydrogen transitions occurring at a rate faster than has occurred in any of the historic examples. The paper concludes that scenarios of alternative vehicle adoption should include more pessimistic scenarios alongside optimistic ones.
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The debate on low-carbon heat in Europe has become focused on a narrow range of technological options and has largely neglected hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, despite these receiving strong support towards commercialisation in Asia.... more
The debate on low-carbon heat in Europe has become focused on a narrow range of technological options and has largely neglected hydrogen and fuel cell technologies, despite these receiving strong support towards commercialisation in Asia. This review examines the potential benefits of these technologies across different markets, particularly the current state of development and performance of fuel cell micro-CHP. Fuel cells offer some important benefits over other low-carbon heating technologies, and steady cost reductions through innovation are bringing fuel cells close to commercialisation in several countries. Moreover, fuel cells offer wider energy system benefits for high-latitude countries with peak electricity demands in winter. Hydrogen is a zero-carbon alternative to natural gas, which could be particularly valuable for those countries with extensive natural gas distribution networks, but many national energy system models examine neither hydrogen nor fuel cells for heating. There is a need to include hydrogen and fuel cell heating technologies in future scenario analyses, and for policymakers to take into account the full value of the potential contribution of hydrogen and fuel cells to low-carbon energy systems.
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Greening the recovery’ UCL Green Economy Policy Commission
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Scenarios are widely used to help policymakers cope with long time horizons and associated environmental, institutional, market and technological uncertainties in the energy arena. However, perceptions of the sustainability of such energy... more
Scenarios are widely used to help policymakers cope with long time horizons and associated environmental, institutional, market and technological uncertainties in the energy arena. However, perceptions of the sustainability of such energy futures often differ markedly ...
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